Unintentionally Hilarious Moments In Films

[Robert]

By this I mean not so much the Plan 9 From Outer Space sort of stuff, but quite serious films which suddenly descend into lunacy.

Here is one of my favourites. Apart from the surreal mixture of accents, we have the marvellous line "It comes every year, sir."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yTc41s8qIoU

[louisa]

Hmmm There must be something wrong with my sense of humour because I didn't find anything about that clip 'hilarious' - sorry.

Yes the English accents were dodgy though.

[Errata]

The movie Anonymous that came out last year. It was hilarious, but it was also the last straw and so I walked out right after.

De Vere was growing "Tudor" roses. As if the director didn't realize it was device, not an actual flower. But there they were, growing in an urn.

[Limehouse]

I thought the whole of 'Brief Encounter' was hilarious. I waited decades to see it, believing I was going to get a kind of 1940s 'Love Story' without the death bed scene and all I actually saw was a couple of people drinking tea, taking trains and having strained conversations in cut glass accents.

The range of 'working class' accents was hysterical - from the 'cor blimey' Stanley Holloway, to the 'gormless' tea girl through to the 'aspirational' tea room manageress.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9hgQTzQkP3A

Of course, the music was wonderful - Rachmaninov - sublime.


Despite the 'hamminess' of Brief Encounter, I thought Celia Johnson was superb in 'This Happy Breed' and I always admired Trevor Howard.

[louisa]

I can see why 'Brief Encounter' would raise a few laughs these days.

However, back in the day.....I presume it was a hit because there must have been a lot of bored housewives, fed up with their old men, wishing to have an affair (albeit a platonic romantic one) with a fellow like Trevor Howard.

On a slightly different subject....I have to assume that there must have been a shortage of good looking YOUNG men back then. Why else would old geezers like Kenneth More, Trevor Howard (was he ever young?)and the tiny John Mills have constantly been cast as leading men? It's always been a puzzle to me, but then, as it is now, it's probably a case of who you know.

[Robert]

Trev was probably thinking about the cricket score. I heard he would only make a film if it was near a cricket match.

[Cogidubnus]

Hidden passions

"Brief Encounter" was very deliberately understated...that was the whole bloody point...

The temptation, the sexual need, the understanding, the opportunity, the poignant return to sanity, were all very much dealt with in clipped, ultra-respectable, upper middle class, terminology...everything said carried a great deal of hidden meaning by the mores of the day - all the other characters (and their accents) were merely offered as a contrast...all the speech in them both mundane and literal...

louisa at least gets part of it!

All the best

Dave

[Limehouse]

"Brief Encounter" was very deliberately understated...that was the whole bloody point...

The temptation, the sexual need, the understanding, the opportunity, the poignant return to sanity, were all very much dealt with in clipped, ultra-respectable, upper middle class, terminology...everything said carried a great deal of hidden meaning by the mores of the day - all the other characters (and their accents) were merely offered as a contrast...all the speech in them both mundane and literal...

louisa at least gets part of it!

All the best

Dave

Hi Dave,

It's not that I 'didn't get it' - I understood perfectly its purpose and it's production values - it was just a bit sterile compared with the way it was advertised.

Incidently, did anyone hear the Brief Encounter spoof/parody on The Archers last week - with Lillian and Paul playing the Celia/Trevor roles?

[Phil H]

did anyone hear the Brief Encounter spoof/parody on The Archers last week

She: "Oh no, darling, I didn't!"

He: "Didn't you, darling?"

She: "No darling."

He: "Nort even a syllable or two?"

She: "Not even a participle."

He: "How absolutely rorten for you."

She: "My train was delayed."

He: "How rorten."

She: "Yes it wars. The Archers is just so "real" - that's the only word."

He: "I agree, darling. It's the way they take off working class accents."

She: "Oh yes, mahvellous. For people like us who speak without any traceable accent, it shows just how the other half live. Sometimes one can even understarnd parts of it."

I LOVE "Brief Encounter" and won't hear a word said against Lean, Coward, Howard, Johnson, Holloway or the train..... those who can't were clearly born on the wrong side of the tracks.

Phil

[Cogidubnus]

What can I say, you bugger!

All the best

Dave

[Phil H]

I was thinking about this thread yesterday and realised there was something about Brief Encounter that no one had observed.

Like Tennessee Williams and Terence Rattigan, Noel Coward was gay but unable in his day to right about that lifestyle. So the sub-text of many (not all) of his plays is the "love that dare not speak its name".

Consider the Trevor Howard and Celia Johnson characters as two members of the same sex and parts of the play come alive - the furtive meetings, the way in which tenderness has to be shown in subtle ways in public - the fact that they have to meet in public places - the risks attaching to illicit and illegal sex. The fact that the two principals are married (and that the then social banishment arising from adultery and divorce hangs over them) stands in for the fact that sex between two men was then illegal and imprisonable.

There are deep and sincere meanings there, I suggest.

phil

[kensei]

Throwing out another film here- I would imagine that the ending of "The Young Victoria," which is supposed to be a true story, would be pretty laughable to anyone who knows that Albert did not really take a bullet to protect Victoria from an assassin. Yes the incident happened, but it seems to me that playing fast and loose with whether the prince was actually shot or not is a pretty big thing to play fast and loose with. If you don't know the truth though, well then it's pretty emotional and the movie makers have done their work.

[louisa]

Since when have film makers let the truth stand in the way of a good story?

For instance, the tale of the Titanic should have been dramatic enough, but Hollywood chose to embellish and change it, to the point of ridiculousness.